the cases that we're now debating back on where we had the underwear bomber in detroit, we had major hassan inspired by awlaki who's now going on trial here for the ft. hood shootings. we had the attempted new york city subway bombing. times square bombing. so a lot of this stuff has continued and can still affect our homeland. i think chertoff on balance can make a pretty reasonable argument in defense of what he is saying. >> john stanton, one cannot ignore the sort of politics of this decision. we played that sound from the president's speech at the national defense university as sort of a reminder i think of his objectives here which is to unwind the 9/11 -- or not unwind but get us past the 9/11 mindset. but this event sort of takes us -- i don't know how ever many steps backward in terms of the sense of security around a sense that perhaps we do not need a counterterrorism complex, a national security complex that's as far-reaching as we have had. can roth, the director of human rights watch, wrote the war against al qaeda is over. this is an op-ed in the "washington post." he says th